Ironruby core - Jun 2009 - Looking for documentation about special clr related methods

Hi,

I''ve seen that IR objects have special methods like to_clr_type,
clr_member, clr_ctor and more. String also has its own to_clr_string
method.

Is there a document or site or a piece of paper that has a list of these
methods and what their purpose is?

Thanks!
Shay
----------------------------
Shay Friedman
http://www.ironshay.com
Follow me: http://twitter.com/ironshay
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Not docs yet, but they are coming. They are all for better .NET integration. Let
me give you a little bit of the docs I''m working on:

to_clr_type is to get the actual CLR Type object from a constant, if that
constant represents a CLR Type. For example:
>>> System::String.class
=> Class

In .NET, String is of type System.RuntimeType, but Ruby says it''s a
Class, because it is mapped to a Ruby class. To get the actual CLR type, you use
to_clr_type:
>>> System::String.to_clr_type.class
=> System::RuntimeType

clr_member is the get the actual member (property, field, method, etc) from a
.NET type. When you do System::String.method(:Replace), you''ll get a
method object pointing to the "Replace" method on Ruby''s
String class. However, you can''t be sure it''s the method from
System::String since "Replace" could have been monkey-patched on
Ruby''s String. clr_member will ensure you get the method object from
the CLR Type.
>>> class System::String
...   def Replace(a, b)
...     raise "BOOM"
...   end
... end
=> nil
>>>
System::String.new("a").method(:Replace).call("a",
"b")
:2:in `Replace'': BOOM (RuntimeError)
        from :0
>>>
System::String.new("a").clr_member(:Replace).call("a",
"b")
=> ''b''

clr_ctor lets you explicitly call a CLR types constructor. There are some CLR
types which map directly to Ruby types (for example: System.Threading.Thread
-> Thread ... call "Thread.to_clr_type"). So:
>>> System::Threading::Thread.new
:0:in `start'': must be called with a block (ThreadError)
        from :0

Eek! What happened? Because the classes are mapped, this actually calls
Ruby''s Thread constructor. Doing System::Threading::Thread.clr_ctor
will give you the method object for the actual CLR constructor, allowing you to
call it directly.

to_clr_string is a convenience method on String which is basically this:

class String
  def to_clr_string
    System::String.new(self)
  end
end

This is needed since a Ruby string is mutable, and a CLR string is immutable, so
they don''t map on to each other. You can still call any immutable Ruby
methods on a CLR string, but they are different types. So for interop with CLR
code which expects a CLR string, it''s useful to do
"foo".to_clr_string. However, I think we do conversions between these
today, it''s not necessary, but still good to have.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you need any further clarification. Also, if
anyone sees anything incorrect, please let me know, as I just wrote it =)

~js

-----Original Message-----
From: ironruby-core-bounces at rubyforge.org [mailto:ironruby-core-bounces at
rubyforge.org] On Behalf Of Shay Friedman
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 12:47 PM
To: ironruby-core at rubyforge.org
Subject: [Ironruby-core] Looking for documentation about special clr related
methods

Hi,

I''ve seen that IR objects have special methods like to_clr_type,
clr_member, clr_ctor and more. String also has its own to_clr_string method.

Is there a document or site or a piece of paper that has a list of these methods
and what their purpose is?

Thanks!
Shay
----------------------------
Shay Friedman
http://www.ironshay.com
Follow me: http://twitter.com/ironshay
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
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Ironruby-core at rubyforge.org
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Wow that''s just awesome!

Thanks so much Jimmy!!!

----------------------------
Shay Friedman
http://www.ironshay.com
Follow me: http://twitter.com/ironshay
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Hey,

After further investigation I have one correction and two more 
additions:

clr_constructor and clr_ctor - they do not execute the CLR constructor, 
they return an array of ConstructorInfo objects (one for each 
constructor ocerload).

clr_new - executes the CLR constructor.

The Method class retrieves two new methods as well:
clr_members - returns an array of RunTimeMethodInfo, one for each method 
overload.

overloads - given types as arguments, it returns the matching overloaded 
CLR method.

Corrections/Comments/Treats/LotsOfMoney will be gladly accepted.

Thanks,
Shay

----------------------------
Shay Friedman
http://www.ironshay.com
Follow me: http://twitter.com/ironshay

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Found one mistake already :)

clr_constructor and clr_ctor return a Method object representing the 
constructors (clr_members and overloads can then be used in order to 
further investigate the constructors).

----------------------------
Shay Friedman
http://www.ironshay.com
Follow me: http://twitter.com/ironshay
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.